Loreto schools across Australia are celebrating 150 years of education, honouring Mother Gonzaga Barry and the Loreto Sisters who travelled from Ireland to establish their first school in Ballarat in 1875.
The 150 Year Exhibition has travelled to six Loreto schools and two schools with a founding association with Loreto. In 2024, the schools created imagery to reflect their individual history. These works are displayed in an installation of three-metre-high mannequins representing the Loreto Sisters.
Loreto College Marryatville’s contribution highlighted the school’s unique link to Saint Mary MacKillop. Using a photograph of Gonzaga Barry at her writing desk, she is depicted as a communicator and prolific letter writer. It was Mary MacKillop who convinced Gonzaga during a meeting in Sydney in 1903 to come to Adelaide, insisting:
You must go at once. There is work for you to do in Adelaide. For some time you will have many difficulties, but eventually you will succeed and your house there will be the most important of all your foundations in Australia.
At first Gonzaga was hesitant, but later reflected:
I look upon Mother Mary as a saint, and I hope she will be the first Australian born saint canonised. On the strength of what she told me I made the foundation in Adelaide in 1905.
The foundation began two years later and grew with the purchase of The Acacias, where Loreto Marryatville flourished. Although Gonzaga faced challenges from some Bishops and priests, they were minor compared with the struggles endured by Mary MacKillop.
Together, these two remarkable women, one of Scottish descent, the other Irish, shaped opportunities for women and girls in Australia, inspiring generations to follow their dreams.
You can view a meditation featuring Gonzaga’s words about Mary MacKillop on Facebook here or YouTube here, and a PowerPoint elaborating the relationship between Gonzaga and Mary below:
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Jacky Hamilton – Leader of Visual Arts, Loreto College Marryatville (South Australia)
